But 74 landowners, representing the last 12 percent of the 226 hectares needed for the plant, are still refusing to sell, the group's spokesman said. The state-owned electric company PLN, however, disputes this, saying only one or two hectares are yet to be acquired.
"We've had thousands of visits, sometimes twice a day," said 72-year-old rice farmer Komaidi, who has rebuffed a procession of officials sent to convince him to sell his small plot. Komaidi, who like many in Indonesia goes by one name, says the fields are all he has to raise his family of 11 children.
Batang, like many other large development projects in Indonesia, has been bogged down for years by legal wrangling.
Bhimasena Power Indonesia, a joint venture company set up by Indonesian coal miner Adaro Energy and Japan's Itochu and Electric Power Development (J-Power) to operate and build the plant, sent a force majeure notice to contractors last year due to the land standoff.
The project also faces stiff opposition from local fishermen and environmental groups like Greenpeace, who say pollution from the plant could threaten nearby waters.
The plant, which will supply power to millions of Indonesians in Java and Bali islands, is a central part of the president's five-year plan to add an additional 35,000 megawatts of power capacity to the current 50,000 megawatts.
Construction must start within weeks if the government hopes to meet its 2018 target for the start of operations.
But with the administration unable to seal the deal, Widodo announced this week he would get directly involved and travel to Central Java later this month to meet the farmers.
If negotiations remain deadlocked after the president's visit, a palace official said the government could take the land under new regulations that allow for the procurement of private property when it is in the public interest.
But the farmers insist they won't budge.
"They have been threatening us like this from the start," said Haruji, a 40-year-old rice farmer in Ponowareng village, whose streets are decorated with banners and graffiti opposing the power plant. "We will be united against that. We will hold on for as long as we can."